How to get Visual Studio to use File Scoped namespaces by default

Question

One of the changes to .Net, which cam in with .Net 6 I think, is the use of file scoped namespaces to reduce nesting.

I have created a solution containing .Net 8 project.

When I create a class using visual studio the default is to still nest the class within the namespace rather than use file scoped namespaces.

I expected it to default to file scoped namespaces as it was a .Net 8 project.

Is there a setting somewhere I need to alter?

Answer 1

Thanks for this.

You are right. I now realise I should have asked about "file scoped namespaces".

For clarification I found the full path to the option to be

Tools > Options> Text Editor > C# > Code Style > Code Block Preferences > Namespace Declarations = 'File scoped'.

I also found another solution at www.meziantou.net which was as follows

• Set preference in the .editorconfig file.
• If you don't have a .editorconfig file, create one at the root of the solution.
• Put the following in the file

[*.cs]
csharp_style_namespace_declarations=file_scoped:suggestion

Which option should we go for

• The former option would presumably need to be altered every time you worked on a solution which contained projects in version which do recognise file scoped namespaces
• I guess the latter is preferable if you are hopping between working on solution of different versions
  • However if the solution contained projects at different versions, perhaps that might be problematic.

Any other considerations?

Answer 2

What you ask is file scoped namespaces, not top-level statements.

To use file scoped namespaces by default, go to Options, Code Style. In the Code Block Preferences block change Block Scoped to File Scoped.